ARAB AND NEAR EAST PLANT PROTECTION NEWSLETTER Number 65, August 2015 Editor-in-chief Ibrahim Al-JBOORY – Faculty of Agriculture, Baghdad University, Iraq. Editorial Board Bassam BAYAA – Faculty of Agriculture, University of Aleppo, Aleppo, Syria. Khaled MAKKOUK – National Council for Scientific Research, Beirut, Lebanon. Shoki AL-DOBAI – Food and Agriculture Organization, Cairo, Egypt. Ahmed DAWABAH – College of Food and Agriculture Sciences, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Ahmed EL-HENEIDY – Plant Protection Research Institute, ARC, Giza, Egypt. Safaa KUMARI – International Centre for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), Tunis, Tunisia. Ahmed EL-AHMED – Faculty of Agriculture, University of Aleppo, Aleppo, Syria. Mustafa HAIDAR – Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences, AUB, Lebanon. Ahmed KATBEH – Faculty of Agriculture, University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan. Bouzid NASRAOUI – INAT, University of Carthage, Tunis, Tunisia. Wa’el ALMATNI – Ministry of Agriculture, Damascus, Syria. Editorial Secretary Tara ALFADHLI – P.O. Box 17399, Amman11195, Jordan. The Arab and Near East Plant Protection Newsletter (ANEPPNEL) is jointly published, three times per year, by the Arab Society for Plant Protection and the Near East Regional Office of the FAO. All correspondence should be sent by email to the Editor ([email protected]). Material from ANEPPNEL may be reprinted provided that appropriate credits are given. The designations employed and the presentation of material in this newsletter do not necessarily imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations or the Arab Society for Plant Protection (ASPP), concerning the legal or constitutional status of any country, territory, city or area, or its authorities or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. Similarly, views expressed by any contributor to the newsletter are those of the contributor only, and must not be regarded as conforming with the views of FAO or ASPP. 1 ANEPPNEL 65, August 2015 ARAB AND NEAR EAST PLANT PROTECTION NEWSLETTER Number 65, August 2015 Contents EDITORIAL 3 CROP PROTECTION NEWS FROM ARAB AND NEAR EAST COUNTRIES 4 INVASIVE AND NEW PESTS 4 RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS 5 POSTGRADUATE ARAB STUDENTS ACTIVITIES ABROAD 13 MSC THESIS TOPICS “SUSTAINABLE IPM TECHNOLOGIES FOR MEDITERRANEAN FRUIT AND VEGETABLE 13 CROPS” 2014/2015 (IAM-BARI) PHD AND MSC STUDENTS GRADUATED FROM ARAB UNIVERSITIES IN PLANT PROTECTION 13 2014/2015 PHD AND MSC STUDENTS GRADUATED FIN COLLABORATION WITH ICARDA 2014/2015 14 SOME PLANT PROTECTION ACTIVITIES OF FAO AND OTHER ORGANIZATIONS 14 DESERT LOCUST SITUATION 14 ACTIVITIES OF FAO COMMISSION FOR CONTROLLING THE DESERT LOCUST IN THE CENTRAL REGION (CRC) 14 INTEGRATED PRODUCTION AND PEST MANAGEMENT PROGRAMME (IPPM) 15 ARAB SOCIETY FOR PLANT PROTECTION NEWS 16 PARTICIPATION OF THE ARAB SOCIETY FOR PLANT PROTECTION IN THE FOURTH INTERNATIONAL ARABIC LANGUAGE CONGRESS 16 12TH ARAB CONGRESS OF PLANT PROTECTION AN ASPP MEMBER RECEIVES AN INTERNATIONAL AWARD GENERAL NEWS 17 KHALIFA INTERNATIONAL DATE PALM AWARD EIGHTH SESSION 2016 17 WORKSHOPS & MEETINGS 17 THE 25TH INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF ENTOMOLOGY, SEPT. 25-30, 2016 IN ORLANDO, FLORIDA, USA. 17 A WORKSHOP ON THE STATUS OF DATE PALM PESTS IN IRAQ 17 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF PLANT PROTECTION RESEARCH INSTITUTE: "AGRICULTURAL 18 PRODUCTION AND PLANT PROTECTION CHALLENGES", 3-6 MAY 2015, EGYPT. PUBLICATIONS AND NEW BOOKS 18 SELECTED RESEARCH PAPERS 19 PAPERS PUBLISHED IN THE ARAB JOURNAL OF PLANT PROTECTION (AJPP) 19 VOLUME 33, ISSUE 1, APRIL 2015 PAPERS, WHICH WILL BE PUBLISHED IN THE ARAB JOURNAL OF PLANT PROTECTION 20 (AJPP), VOLUME 33, ISSUE 2, AUGUST 2015 EVENTS OF INTEREST 20 PRIVATE ENTERPRISES NEWS 21 2 ANEPPNEL 65, August 2015 EDITORIAL Can Plant Microbiome Improve Farming: A Real Challenge to Researchers In medicine, it is well established that there is a correlation between the millions of microbes that live within our body and human health. Studies showed that a healthy population of bacteria (microbiome) in a person can prevent food allergies and even treat depression. Likewise, these tiny organisms can play a beneficial role in plant health. Growth-promoting bacteria or fungi can in seed coats, suspended in water and sprayed onـــbe added to plants or soil in a variety of ways plants or soil, or mixed into mulches that are added to the soil or placed around plants. These beneficial microorganisms studied for many decades, are now attracting more attention from researchers looking for approaches that are kind to the environment. The approach is not new. Romans used to grow plants that form associations with nitrogen-fixing bacteria (clover, alfalfa) in crop rotations to improve soil fertility. They did not know why the clover or alfalfa plants helped to improve the growth of other crops grown in the soil, but we now know that these plants can enhance levels of nitrogen in the soil, via the activity of nitrogen-fixing bacteria. Free-living microbes, known collectively as endophytes, can suppress plant pathogens or other harmful organisms. Endophytes can also assist plant growth directly by regulating plant hormones, activating plant immune responses and providing the plant with additional nutrients. Understanding microbial communities in crops can reduce the amount of pesticides used or make plants drought-resistant. However, we should keep in mind that many microbes can prove to have plant-beneficial effects under controlled conditions, but it is not necessary that they will do the same under field conditions. Finding microbes that can consistently produce significant positive growth responses under highly variable field conditions remains a challenge. For more information on this topic, readers are referred to the article by Elizabeth Bent entitled “Understanding Plant Microbiome Can Improve Farming and Plant Health” published on January 23, 2015 on “The Conversation” online site (http://www.theconversation.com/au). Khaled Makkouk National Council for Scientific Research Beirut, Lebanon 3 ANEPPNEL 65, August 2015 Crop Protection News from Arab and Near East Countries in citrus cultures. A survey of Hymenopteran INVASIVE AND NEW PESTS parasitoids attacking C. capitata pupae was conducted during May and June 2014 in grapefruit and Valencia orange orchards in Tartous, Syria. Two species of SAUDI ARABIA parasitoid wasps emerged from host pupae, namelyAganaspis daci (Hymenoptera: Figitidae) and Pachycrepoideus vindemmiae (Hymenoptera: Eriophyoid mites (Prostigmata: Eriophyoidea) Pteromalidae). P. vindemmiae is recorded for the first associated with date palms: new record and a new time for Syria. Overall parasitism was 4% and 31% in species of the genus Acaphyllisa from Saudi Valencia orange and grapefruit, respectively. Further Arabia. Acaphyllisa arabica sp.nov. (Prostigmata: studies are now required to evaluate their potential Eriophyidae) is described and illustrated. It is the first for C. capitata population suppression and biological species of the genus Acaphyllisa Keifer recorded on control. [Ali Yassen Ali, Matthias Schöller (Syria & date palms.Acaphyllisa and Mackiella phoenicis Keifer Germany), Internat. Entomol. Ver. Band 39. Heft 3/4. are reported for the first time in Saudi Arabia. [J.A. 171-178, 2014]. Fahad, M. Kamran and C.H.W. Flechtmann (Saudi Arabia). International Journal of Acarology, 40(4): 353- 357, 2014]. TUNISIA First report of Tomato spotted wilt virus in lettuce Establishment of fungal entomopathogens crops in Saudi Arabia. A survey for viruses in open Beauveria bassiana and Bionectria ochroleuca field lettuce crops was carried out in March 2014 in the (Ascomycota: Hypocreales) as endophytes on Al-Uyaynah area, central region of Saudi Arabia. In one artichoke Cynara scolymus. Entomopathogenic fungi plot, more than 50% of the lettuces (hybrid Romaine), (EPF) are commonly found in diverse habitats and are with the majority of the affected plants in the edges of known to cause mycoses in many different taxa of the plot, showed virus-like symptoms such as necrotic arthropods. Various unexpected roles have been lesions, necrosis of the lamina of the younger leaves recently reported for fungal entomopathogens, and leaf curling. Most of the infected plants were dead including their presence as fungal endophytes, plant when the field was visited again after 3 weeks. The disease antagonists, rhizosphere colonizers and plant causal pathogen was identified as Tomato spotted wilt growth promoting fungi. In Tunisia, a wide range of virus (TSWV) based on genetic (ELISA, PCR and RT- indigenous EPF isolates from different species, such as PCR) and pathogenicity analyses. This is thought to be Beauveria bassiana and Bionectria ochroleuca, were the first report of TSWV naturally infecting lettuce in found to occur in the soil, and to be pathogenic against Saudi Arabia. [M.A. Al-Saleh, I.M. Al-Shahwan, M.A. the artichoke aphid Capitophorus elaeagni (Hemiptera: Amer, M.T. Shakeel, M.H. Ahmad, A. Kamran, C.E. Aphididae). Since endophytic fungi are recently Efthimiou and N.I. Katis (Saudi Arabia). Plant Disease, regarded as plant-defending mutualists and their 98(11): 1591, 2014]. presence in internal plant tissue has been discussed as an adaptive protection against insects, we were SYRIA interested on elucidating the possible endophytic behavior of B. bassiana and B. ochroleuca on artichoke, Cynara scolymus, after foliar spraying Gynaikothrips uzeli (Thysanoptera: